Parts of the Guitar

Parts of the Guitar

Electric and Acoustic GuitarsHollow Body Electric and Solid Body Guitars

-Alan Arnell

Guitar Parts Described

The three main parts of a guitar are the body, neck and headstock.  

The unit close to or at the base of the guitar’s body that holds or anchors all the strings together to the body is called the bridge.  The saddle is placed just above the bridge which holds the strings properly in place.  The saddle also adjusts the height of each string (or action).  The saddle can be adjusted to raise or lower the action.  This action helps provide pitch accuracy (intonation), which means that the guitar is in tune all the way up and down the neck.

Mounted to the body behind the strings are the pickups. There may be just one or maybe even five pickups on an electric guitar. A pickup functions like the guitar's microphone. The pickup picks-up the vibrations of the of the strings and converts them to electronic signals that travel through the guitar cord to the amplifier.  The pickups are regulated in tone and volume by the control knobs that are located on the front of the body. Another adjustment for the pickups is the selector switch or (toggle switch). The selector switch is the on and off adjustment for the pickup/s.   With multiple pickups the guitar player can use one, two or all of pickups while playing the guitar.  Using the selector switch you may make a guitar produce different sounds at the flick of a switch.

The guitar's input jack will be located on the side or the front of the body.  The input jack is generally has a ¼ inch diameter input hole.  My Yamaha has the input jack and the bottom button combined. Cool!

Strap buttons are located on both sides of the body where a guitar strap can be attached. An acoustic guitar may not have a top button by where the neck is attached to the body.  If there is no top button then a strap that lashes to the guitar head must be used.

The front face of the neck is called the fretboard (or fingerboard).  The metal bars going across the fretboard are called frets.  The dots are position markers (or Fret markers)  for visual references to help you gauge where you are on the neck while playing.  The dots are not always dots as the newer SG Gibson have square dots.  All the markings, no matter what shape, are called dots.

The nut holds and supports the strings in place where the necks meets the headstock.  The nut marks one end of the vibrating length of each open string, sets the spacing of the strings across the neck, and helps holds the strings at the proper height from the fingerboard. Along with the bridge, the nut defines the vibrating lengths (scale lengths) of the open strings.

The headstock contains the machine heads (also referred to a tuners, tuning keys, gears, pegs, machines, cranks, knobs, tensioners and tighteners);  the machine heads are used to tune the strings by tightening or loosing them.  A machine head consists of a cylinder or capstan, mounted at the center of a pinion gear, a knob or "button" and a worm gear that links them. The capstan has a hole through the far end from the gear, and the string is made to go through that hole, and is wrapped around the capstan. To complete the string installation, the string is tightened by turning the capstan using the tuning knob. The worm gear ensures that the capstan cannot turn without a movement on the knob; it also allows precise tuning.

Parts of the Acoustic Guitar Verses the Electric Guitar

To learn about "Guitar String Gauges" (string diameter sizes)

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